Federal Marshal

It was a 4.6, 13 miles west of Perry, so stronger than usual. OKC and Wichita also felt it. There were 7 foreshocks, since late Friday morning. The Perry area, especially W to WSW of there has been a very active hot spot for earthquakes for a long time. So I've been fearing something strong was going to erupt there. We should be thankful the earthquake wasn't any stronger.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

All the teachers who have been at the capital instead of in their classrooms have upset the equilibrium of the earth's crust in central Oklahoma. With Perry being on the edge of the OKC instability, That's the tipping point.

We did a fairly long article back in February on fracking protocols. Here's a link.

Industry must comply with strengthened fracking protocols in a 12,500-square-mile area of western and south-central Oklahoma to try to reduce an upswing in earthquakes linked to oil and natural gas well completion activities, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission announced Tuesday.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey’s seismic network is unable to provide the “real-time” monitoring mandated by the new protocol to swiftly take mitigation actions, meaning businesses must use private seismic arrays to monitor ground shaking and adhere to regulations.

Jake Walter, the OGS’s state seismologist, called the protocol a step in the right direction, but he said he thinks private arrays aren’t what the public needs.

Walter supports a “relatively small investment” of $110,000 annually to better staff OGS and allow the agency to actively monitor seismicity 24/7, instead of just during normal business hours and for larger quakes.

Put simply, a fault line is a crack in the earth’s crust. The earth’s land masses — known as tectonic plates — are always moving imperceptibly. Over the course of millions of years, those plates collided, causing cracks (fault lines) deep below the surface.

Those faults shift when pressure is applied. Sometimes it’s natural pressure from the moving plates. But in Oklahoma, Boak said, the pressure is man-made: Wastewater injected into the ground is causing the faults to shift. And the ground shakes when that happens.